does everything they can to contribute to society, working hard and respecting the rights of fellow citizens. I tend to believe in a sort of "world citizenship," however, which transcends national boundaries.

pays their taxes, observes the laws, has faith in the state

respects the country, state, the governments, laws and people.

who actively participates in the government, votes, speaks out when they have a complaint, and has a productive role in society.

who acts for the greater good of his neighbors.

who chooses to participate

who contributes to their country and votes

Who does not maliciously break the law and who follows the laws of his or her country.

who does their civic duty and doesn't commit crimes.

who does what they think is right
who believes in their country
respects others and obeys the law

who is respectful of the law and does her best to abide by society's rules.

Laurent, it's difficult to answer to your question from here; I honestly don't know. However, my impression is that the French citizens are, as some of you have said in this forum, very proud of their country. French people sound quite positive when talking about France, at least with foreigners, and I'd say that more so than Americans. Why is this? Because, in spite of the strikes, at the end of the day you feel very happy with your country? Because, even if you think that France can do better in some things, you are happy when you compare yourselves to other countries? Because you think that complaints should only be discussed internally and not vented out externally?

Related to this, I would like to share a story and pose a question. Last year, I visited a research group in France that I was considering joining (yeah, I got to travel a lot last year, it was nice :-)). The group looked great and I really wanted to join, but unfortunately the funding didn't come through at the end and I was unable to join them. During my visit, I had the opportunity to talk to many students and researchers in the group. I was very surprised that all of them said only very positive things about the group atmosphere, the working conditions, the boss, etc. While I know that the group is indeed very good, I was surprised, because when prospective students or prospective researchers come to MIT, we generally give them a good dose of self-criticism about things we don't like (even if we are generally happy), while of course telling them the good stuff as well. Could it be that French people are more cautious than Americans and more reluctant to say negative things about themselves to people they don't know very well? What do you think?

Looking at the general responses to the definition of a good citizen I see that I'm not considered a "good citizen." While I do the easy civic duties like paying taxes, I don't always follow some of the other ones like jury duty or obeying the laws. In France, what are the civic duties that citizens are supposed to follow?

I noticed on the French side that the phrase 'la vie du pays' and many like it came up very frequently. I know what this means literally. But I was curious to know exactly what the French mean by 'the life of the country'. Is it to do with culture or is it more general and just to do with contributing to the country in a positive manner?